A Continuing Influx of Terrific Titletown Bands

Checked the calendar for who's playing where last weekend -- Northside Creeps at the Circle A were on the bill and I hadn't seen their psychedelic punk garage (put those three words in a sentence together and I'm there) lately, but I'd had a long week at work and all I wanted to do was sit on my butt and watch yet another episode of Star Trek I'd seen seven hundred times. However, when i looked closer, I saw that a band out of Green Bay was opening and lately the stuff coming out of Brown County and vicinity has yet to fail me, so I was 75% ready to go out. I checked the TV listings to see what ST-TOS episode was scheduled and it was "Spock's Brain." That did it. "I'm outta here," I told the family.

Shows at the Circle A are supposed to start at 8, but they rarely do and last Friday was no exception. Getting there early allowed me to grab my favorite seat at what I call the "Chef's table" and tom Tiedjens joined me for some nostalgic gossip and band news. His outfit, Spudbucket, released a new song/video, Fraction of a Reaction, that recalls the kind of Nick Lowe-ish pub rock (but very USA Midwest about it) in 2020s hi-def video directed by the Xposed 4Heads' Mark GE.  He's in the studio with Ron Turner and George Mirales putting more power pop together that I'm looking forward to.

The Northside Creeps

But tonight was a night for garage, and the Northside Creeps started out their set with an extended, psychedelic spacey tome that suddenly crashed into an angsty garage rant. Despite technical difficulties (actually it was more like dealing with a broken guitar strap) they powered through a great punk set. They had a touch of surf going, too, which was a welcome sound during what is turning out to be winter's last gasp.

But I'm a fan of all these genres that the Creeps paint with: garage, punk, psychedelia, (which makes me a fan of this band), and they frost it with those snotty vocals and attitude I love so well. Sometimes they even got a little Velvet-y (as in Underground). They were a perfect warm up for the band from Green Bay, Holly and the Nice Lions.

Holly spent the warm up to the set watching the band and likely considering how there might be a curse on her playing the Circle A: I overheard her saying that every time they had a chance to play the A, something went wrong -- either weather or somebody had a conflict, or whatEVER.

Holly and the Nice Lions

She even mentioned during the set that "we're cursed"- - the technical difficulties the Creeps had seemed to have bled over to this band, and bass player Steven spent a good portion of the set dealing with a bass amp (borrowed from the Creeps) that just wasn't agreeing with them. In fact, afterwards they admitted it was kind of a disaster set, but neither I nor anybody else in the crowd thought so -- the set was sweaty, grinding, tight, and for awhile there, I thought the bass player kneeling down by the amp thing was part of his style -- that's how professionally and convincingly they plowed through their songs.  Instead of a disaster, they crashed into their set with a bottom heavy, crunchy sound topped off with Holly's ferocious vocals reminding me of early Polly Jean Harvey -- except instead of being from some English seaside town, this band has cheesehead written all over them.

Early on in the set, I wanted to call it no-wave, but this band had too much swagger for that. Holly's guitar style was all over the place, at times muddy with basic power chords, and at other times, with a precision that made me think of St. Vincent. Between bands like them, The Smart Shoppers, and others, yeah, there's a great scene going on in Brown County and I need to see more of it. Maybe a road trip is in order.

The next night I ventured out to Linneman's to catch another band that, like the Northside Creeps, I love but always seem to have a conflict for: The Mighty Deer Lick.

The Mighty Deer Lick

We know and love all the songs, we know Dave's going to have at least five different T-Shirts (all on at the same time), and we know they're going to be tight because after all these years they can probably play their entire set in their sleep. They'd just returned from playing up north as a matter of fact (Oshkosh, to be exact, not exactly Brown County). They claimed in advance that this was going to be an early show, promising to be on stage by 9 ish, followed by a reunion of the Lost Toothbrushes at 10 ish. Well, the Deer Lick got onstage about that time, but there was a surprise set from the Carolinas (all of whom just happened to be in the room) before the Toothbrushes. So, they probably weren't going to get on until 11 ish and I had a prior engagement to hit. Alas, no found toothbrushes for me. Like Dave, sometimes I just have to accept that I'm chopped liver.